Pharmaceutical companies focus on small molecules they've devised – and can easily patent. But nature's already come up with many antibacterial compounds that drug designers could use to make medicines.

Health Canada’s intention to increase the fees drug makers pay for the drug approval process threatens to compromise drug safety and the health of the Canadian public.
(Shutterstock)January 9, 2018

Holding patents can be a lucrative and powerful position to be in. Here's a proposal for how nonprofit patent holders can do more for the common good – and live up to their end of the tax break bargain.

Drug-resistant strains of gonorrhoea, once easily dispatched with penicillin, are spreading across the globe resulting in chronic pain and sterility.
(Shutterstock)July 18, 2017

The 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine went to research on remedies derived from natural compounds. Academia is continuing the fight against 'neglected' diseases by similarly hunting for new drugs in nature.

The Western Cape’s fynbos is one of South Africa’s biodiversity hotspots. Local traditional healers use its leaf material for medicines.
Reuters/Mike HutchingsSeptember 3, 2015